Disability advocacy is often framed around policy, access, and systems, and those things matter. They shape whether we can learn, work, participate, and move through the world with dignity. But as I have grown in my work and witnessed the legacy of disability justice leaders like Alice Wong, I have learned a deeper truth:

Disabled people deserve joy, rest, and celebration, not as a reward after the work is done, but as part of the movement itself.

Alice Wong, whose advocacy transformed the cultural conversation around disability, taught us that our humanity is not negotiable. She amplified voices long ignored, demanded visibility, and reminded the world that disability is not a tragedy. It is culture, community, and power. Her life was living proof that storytelling is activism, and that access to joy is just as political as access to healthcare, education, or public spaces.

Yet so many disabled people grow up believing we must survive quietly or fight constantly. Burnout becomes normalized because the world expects us to work twice as hard for half the support. But burnout is not a personal failure. It is a symptom of the ableism woven into our systems.

Behind every statistic and policy fight is a person who deserves softness. A person who deserves to exhale. A person who deserves space to simply be human.

In my work with NACDD, I have seen how often disability spaces center urgency, crisis, and struggle. But I have also seen the transformative power of community care, environments where people check in on one another, where access needs are not questioned, and where rest is not a luxury but an expectation. Community care is not pity or charity. It is how we survive, and it is how we build futures where disabled people thrive.

And that is where joy becomes resistance. To exist joyfully in a society built on ableism is a declaration that disabled lives are worth living openly, loudly, and fully. Joy is how we stretch our imagination and dream up a world where accessibility and acceptance are the norm, not the exception. Alice Wong fought for that world with brilliance, humor, and unapologetic visibility.

We honor her by continuing that work not only through policy and advocacy, but by building movements that reflect the futures we are fighting for. Meetings with built-in breaks. Events designed with access at the center. Leadership models that honor humanity over perfectionism. Spaces where disabled joy is not radical, but expected.

We deserve to celebrate our milestones, both big and small. We deserve relationships that sustain us. We deserve rooms where our laughter is welcome and our needs respected.

Most of all, we deserve lives filled with joy, not after the struggle, but alongside it.

Alice Wong would be proud of a movement that fights hard, rests boldly, and chooses joy without apology. And she reminds us that our joy is not separate from our activism.

It is the activism.

Tabia Lee

Intern, NACDD

 

Tabia Lee is an undergraduate intern with NACDD and a B.A. candidate in Criminology, with a concentration in Sociology, at Howard University. She serves as the Founder and President-Elect of the Howard University Chapter of the National Action Network (NAN) and founded the campus’s Disability Justice Advisory Board under the Office of the Vice President for Student Affairs. Previously, she supported housing and youth homelessness initiatives as a Baltimore Civic Site Intern at the Annie E. Casey Foundation and advanced civic engagement as a Democracy Fellow with the New Jersey Black Empowerment Coalition. A published multicultural children’s book author, with works registered with the U.S. Copyright Office (Library of Congress), and a STEM advocate, Tabia is committed to advancing equity, inclusion, and opportunity for people with disabilities and other underrepresented communities.